we cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. this enables us to do something, and do it very well. it may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.
- archbishop romero

3.05.2009

school bus hugs

Today I saw a little girl get off a school bus. She wasn’t very old, maybe 1st or 2nd grade. My mom and I were driving along Hard Rd and had to stop because a school bus was letting off kids near an apartment complex. There was a mom and a younger brother waiting for this little girl. And when that little girl stepped off the bus, the younger brother ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug.

And I thought, ‘he’s probably waited all day to see his older sister and give her that hug.’ All day to that little boy was a long time. A day doesn’t seem that long to me anymore. But I’ve lived 22 years. That boy was maybe 4.

I remember when days seemed forever. Weeks were an eternity. And I could barely wrap my mind around a month. Not seeing my brother all day was torture. All day was a long time back then.

Nowadays, I go months without seeing my brother, or other people I love. My concept of time has changed. A day to that little boy is the same as months to me. But hugs for my brother after months look exactly the same as that hug I witnessed today between a brother and sister who had gone ALL DAY without seeing each other. It’s like stepping off a school bus to a waiting family at the end of a long day.

I get my next hug in a few weeks from my little brother. Except now he’s the one in school and I’m the bum at home. It will still be just as good. I’ve been waiting all day.